The Relevance of Recreation and Sports Ministry

 

Reaching a postmodern culture takes using all the tools at our disposal. Traditional tools (asking someone to a Bible study, crusade evangelism, door to door evangelistic visits etc.) are in many places, not effective as they once were. People pass by our churches everyday and ignore us because they don't see the relevance of the church or what the church has to offer in their lives. To them, the Christian life is one of rules, no fun and something that does not relate to their work, family or leisure. Why will recreation and sports ministry work?

1. Recreation and sporting events are gathering places for people.

Many times unchurched people will attend a recreation event at a church before they will walk into a worship service. One church recently had a Labor Day Weekend Extravaganza that had phenomenal results. They did church on Saturday and held a community wide event on their parking log on Sunday from 3 p.m. - 10 p.m. Monday the church people had off to enjoy the day with family. The intent was to introduce their church to the community. They had every kind of game and inflatable you can think of, music of all kinds, children, youth and adult areas and plenty of food. After all was said and done, they had 30,000 people on their church grounds for that event. The community responded - they know where the church is, what they provide families and that there are various ministries that they can take advantage of if needed. Every person who attended got a tabloid newspaper telling about the church, giving the plan of salvation and outlining ministries of the church.

2. Recreation and sporting events can bridge cultural and racial barriers.

Sports is the universal language. Churches are finding that offering a soccer clinic, or a sports-oriented day camp or VBS will gather many participants. Young and old alike attend games. The difference between what the church offers and what a city program offers is that the church program is very participatory in nature. Every participant should play in every game the same amount of time. The purpose is influencing people with the gospel in order to grow the Kingdom of God, not having a winning season. While foreign to some, this concept is transferable to any area of recreation ministry, not just sports.

3. Recreation and sports ministry is an area where Christians can use their gifts, talents and abilities for the Kingdom's sake.

While many may not feel they are ready to teach a Sunday school class, they may be willing to lead a crafts or aerobic class because they are doing this using a natural talent, or interest. It is small step to infusing "intentionality" into the class, practice or meeting time to give a personal word of testimony and lead a prayer. If my interest or ability is here and I am comfortable leading the event, sharing a word of testimony is natural and non-threatening to leader and participant alike.

4. Recreation events offer an avenue to gain visibility in the community.

Think back to the church that did the Labor Day Extravaganza -- they gained visibility. While most of us will not have any event that large, we can do things on our scale, within our budget, using our people to gain visibility in the community. All it takes is a little imagination, hard work and a lot of prayer and dependence on the Holy Spirit to have a huge impact.

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